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Re: The license of the URW fonts



Anton Zinoviev said:
> Hi!
>
> This is the license of the URW fonts:
>
> % Copyright (URW)++,Copyright 1999 by (URW)++ Design & Development %
> (URW)++,Copyright 1999 by (URW)++ Design & Development
> % See the file COPYING (GNU General Public License) for license
> conditions. % As a special exception, permission is granted to include
> this font % program in a Postscript or PDF file that consists of a
> document that % contains text to be displayed or printed using this
> font, regardless % of the conditions or license applying to the document
> itself.
>
> I'd like to ask if this `special exception' is valid for modified
> fonts also or it is valid only for the original unmodified fonts.

Modified fonts have a joint copyright (This is probably not the correct
legal term) where the original is (C) URW, and the modifications (if they
meet the legal requirements for being a copyrighted work) are (C) their
author.

To copy/distribute/modify the combined work, you must satisfy the license
of all the copyrighted work.  So:

The author of the modifications could (at her option) include the "special
exception" in the license of her copyrighted work.  In this case, the two
licenses are identical, and you can print your document.

or

The author of the modifications could (at her option) not include the
"special exception".  In this case, you would have to comply with the GPL,
which may or may not consider a printed document a "derived work", which
would require you to give an electronic copy of the fonts to anyone you
give a printout to.

However, if the author did not extend the "special exception", you could
expunge all of that author's work from the fonts and be left with a
product that could be distributed under the original license (with the
exception, assuming that you license your changes with the "special
exception").

--Joe





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